BMI ‘tried to scare patients into switching health insurer’

A nurse, left, supports a patient as they walk through the BMI Weymouth hospital in London, U.K., on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. BMI Healthcare Ltd opened the flagship hospital in August this year. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bupa is suing Britain’s biggest operator of private hospitals for trying to
“frighten” sick patients into switching to alternative insurers in an
acrimonious bust-up over the cost of medical care.

The insurance network, which provides health cover to four million people,
used to own hospitals but nowadays procures treatment from third-party
providers, the biggest of which is BMI Hospitals.

Bupa intends to stop sending patients to 12 of BMI’s 70 hospitals at the end
of the year in protest at a rise in charges for inpatient and outpatient
care, and is considering its position at the other 58 sites.